Tee up fundraising success with a fun golf tournament fundraiser! These events are great for targeting donors who may be willing to give more to your organization. They can also help you introduce your organization to a new audience. Read on to learn the steps it takes to start a golf tournament fundraiser, as well as some tips to make your event a success.
Join the fundraising movement! Join the fundraising movement!Did you know that 6.8 million people between 18 to 34 play golf – with U.S. golfers earning an average household income of $125,000? Successful golf tournament fundraisers can bring in thousands in revenue for your nonprofit.
In this article, we share the eight steps to start your own golf fundraiser, plus a few extras to add to your event to help you maximize your donations. We’ll also share a free downloadable checklist to help you plan.
Golf tournament fundraisers are some of the most lucrative ways to raise more for your cause. You’ll have countless chances to raise money through event registration, add-ons like raffles and auctions, sponsorships, and in-person donations.
Pro tip: To boost flexibility for your supporters, host a virtual golf tournament fundraiser. Your players can play from any golf course and you can end the event with a virtual session featuring engaging raffle contests and fun games. This also cuts down on your event budget!
There are a few golf tournament types you can try with your event. Let’s look at them in detail below.
With Best Ball, each player plays the whole round, and scores are based on the best score. Handicaps are also available during a Best Ball game – so once again, beginners have a better chance to win and have more fun.
Stroke play is just like a regular golf game. Players are scored based on the number of strokes they take on each hole. Stroke games are the best option for well-versed golf players, but beginners may find this daunting.
Note: If you don’t have a large group of donors who play golf, Stroke games are probably not the best option.
Match play is similar to Stroke, but teams score together when they play instead of as individuals. Expert golfers can have fun, and less experienced players will have a chance if others on their team are better golfers.
Scrambles are common among golf tournament fundraisers and an excellent way to encourage beginner and intermediate golfers to join the fun. Players in Scramble games all shoot their first drive from the same tee. The best hit determines where the rest of the game starts. This way, everyone starts at the same level.
Whatever golf fundraiser you decide on, be sure to devise a pricing strategy for your event that maximizes revenue. You’ll need to come up with ticket pricing as well. Use an event-ticketing system that allows you to add multiple ticket tiers for sponsorships, individual and team entry, raffle tickets, and more.
Donorbox Events lets you create an event page including a powerful ticketing form. Add unlimited ticket tiers, set a ticket quantity and purchasing deadline, calculate the tax deductibility of ticket tiers, and more. Plus, if you’re selling bundled offers – or a sponsorship tier that includes tickets, a table, and perks – set those up as Ticket Packages so supporters can easily buy one grouped option.
See how FosterHub uses Donorbox Events to promote a scramble golf tournament with multiple ticket tiers to raise funds that help equip foster youth aging out of care with housing, resources, tools, and more.
Promote Your Golf Fundraiser with Donorbox Events
Bonus resource: For other sporty fundraising ideas, check out our blog posts on dodgeball tournament fundraisers and cornhole fundraisers!
Now that we’ve looked at the different types of golf fundraisers, let’s dive into the eight steps to starting your golf tournament fundraiser!
Your team’s first job is to choose a location and date for your upcoming golf outing. Most event planners recommend you set your fundraising goals and budget before deciding on a site and date.
But golf tournament fundraisers are a bit different because the highest expense for this type of event is for the use of the golf course. Your location may also determine how many foursomes you can include and how much money you raise.
When deciding where to hold your event, find a location that doesn’t make your event ticket price unattainable for most of your donors. Visit your donor database to determine how much people donated to your organization for an idea of which prices seem reasonable.
Another thing you may want to think about is whether golfers will want to play your chosen course. If you hold your golf outing at a private club that most people cannot play on their own, there may be a better chance that you attract high-income donors to your event. At the same time, the price for private clubs is understandably higher.
Pro tip: Research when neighboring nonprofits are holding their events and do your best not to choose the same date.
Next, you’ll need to develop a realistic fundraising goal and budget for your golf tournament fundraiser. Your fundraising office should decide what you need to raise from this event, but afterward, your team can play a more significant role in determining how to raise these funds.
Prior fundraising successes and failures help determine how much a golf fundraiser will bring in for your organization. Past events may also give you a better idea of how well live and silent auctions do with your donor base.
Pro tip: Once you set a fundraising goal, add a goal meter to your donation page. It’s the perfect way to keep your fundraiser focused on the target, motivate your team, and share your progress with current and potential donors. And they create a sense of urgency when you’re close to reaching your target, boosting your donation potential!
After the golf course, other event expenses include:
In addition to signs that promote your event and nonprofit, add signs at each hole to promote your mission and gain sponsorships to raise more funds during your event.
The cost of these items can be as little or as much as you choose. Many golf tournaments include a fundraising dinner or lunch. The location you choose should offer the cost of renting a room for this part of your event. Food should be part of this cost as well, since most golf courses will not let you bring in outside caterers.
Revenue for golf tournament fundraisers can also come from several different sources. These include:
It takes a lot of people to run a successful golf tournament fundraiser!
Recruit volunteers who are interested in your mission. Bonus points if they know a thing or two about golf!
Establish a fundraising team of volunteers to help plan and run your event. There are several directions your golf outing can go, and you probably have a few volunteers who have attended and even run golf outings themselves. Find at least five people to help plan this event, and put them in charge of specific areas of the planning process.
Pro tip: The first people you consider should be your board members. See who would be interested in joining the planning committee. Board members should have connections with other leaders in your community to sell tickets, find sponsors, and auction items for your golf tournament fundraiser.
In addition to your planning committee, you will need even more volunteers on golf day. Volunteers are needed to run the games at each hole, help golfers around the course, and run your fundraising dinner and auctions. If you can find companies willing to offer corporate volunteers for your event, take them up on their offer.
As we mentioned earlier, there are many golf tournaments out there, so you may want to help yours stand out by creating a theme. Golf fundraisers for women can have a tea party or spa theme. Golf fundraisers for men can be based on movies like “Caddyshack” or “Tin Cup.” Other theme ideas can be based on your nonprofit’s mission.
Finding a theme that suits your organization can be fun and an excellent chance to show your creativity. It can also attract and appeal to new donors!
Check out how this organization created a fun “Candyland” theme for their golf fundraiser. They use Donorbox Events to sell tickets to their event.
Create a Fundraising Event – Sign Up!
Ticket sales will only cover the cost of the golf course and food, so you’ll need to include several different fundraising games and ideas in your event.
If your event includes a dinner or lunch, you can host a silent or live auction. These auctions can add hundreds or even a few thousand to your revenue, depending on the items. This is where your fundraising team comes in handy. Before sending your team out to find auction items, give them a list of items that will have the best chance of raising money at your event.
Pro tip: Golfers love golfing at private clubs. If your event is being held at a private club, ask for a foursome donation to include in your auction. Be sure to ask around at all the other private clubs for foursome donations as well.
Auctions are not the only way to raise additional funds during your golf tournament fundraiser. You can raise more money by adding a one-on-one contest or giving golfers the chance to buy unlimited mulligans.
Another way to raise funds for your event is through sponsorships. Company sponsorships should be customized for each business you contact.
If a large corporation is willing to support your nonprofit with a substantial donation, you can offer them a naming sponsorship. For example, the entire event can be named the John B and Sons Golf Tournament for … Nonprofit. This gives the company additional advertising opportunities and social impact status in your community.
Other companies can support your golf event with a “hole” sponsorship. This can be offered for a few hundred dollars in exchange for their name and logo being added to signage on a particular hole.
Companies may pay more for hole sponsorships at the putting contest or hole-in-one holes. It’s best practice to find a different sponsor for each hole. You can even offer the company the chance to set up a table at the hole to share their goodies!
We love how Posability includes hole signage and various perks for each sponsorship tier. View all the tiers they’ve added to their Donorbox-hosted form.
No one will come to your event if you don’t advertise, so find ways to promote your event wherever possible! Here are some promotion tactics to keep in mind.
One of the easiest ways to promote a golf tournament is by creating an event page online and adding your ticket levels to it. It’s easy to share your online event page – all you need to do is add the link to your social media accounts and share it via email to help people buy tickets easily.
The first step would be to choose an online event ticketing solution that enables you to create an event page and a ticketing form in simple steps. Donorbox Events makes this easy!
Read this step-by-step guide to start using Donorbox Events in only a few simple steps, and watch this short video to see it in action!
If your golf tournament is your largest fundraiser – and it includes a dinner and auction afterward – you may want to sell printed tickets to make it more formal. This may also help when selling dinner tickets to those not interested in golf.
Your fundraising team will be essential when selling tickets to your golf tournament. Most golf tournaments sell tickets as foursomes.
The best way to sell these foursomes is by word of mouth and personal invites. It is a lot harder to say no to a friend or colleague than to an email or social media post.
Ask your fundraising team to find at least the number of foursomes that cover your event’s cost. This way, your budget doesn’t suffer if the event is not as successful as you had hoped.
Social media is the best way to create momentum around any upcoming event.
You can create an event page for your fundraiser on Facebook. It’s the easiest way to share updates, invite your friends and family, see who’s interested in the event, and more. Link your event to any online campaign you’re running to provide an easy way to buy tickets and donate.
If you already have a monthly/weekly newsletter, all you have to do is add info about your fundraiser to your next mailing.
Golf tournaments provide great photo opportunities.
This is especially true if you’ve selected a theme and event attendees are dressed up. Donors are having fun, your nonprofit is promoting its mission, and sponsors are advertising across the golf course.
The chance of getting a usable photograph for your website and your sponsors’ websites is high. Past event photographs are also a great way to attract new attendees to upcoming golf events. Finding a professional photographer may be a reasonable cost to include in your event budget.
We’ve prepared a downloadable checklist to help you plan golf tournament fundraisers nine months in advance.
Now that we’ve explored different types of golf and the eight steps to planning your event, it’s time to talk funding.
Golf fundraising calls for creativity. While there are ample fundraising games nonprofits include at golf tournament fundraisers, you can stand out in the crowd if you look for ways to promote your mission or build on a theme.
Mulligans are one of those things that pretty much every golf tournament offers. They are a second chance to swing, and golfers can buy as many as they want before or during the game. Selling mulligans is an excellent way to raise a little more funds with limited effort!
You’ll need volunteers to sell mulligans on the course – unless you have a strategy in place to sell online tickets for mulligans and raise more! The event ticketing example below features a dedicated tier to sell mulligans for an annual golf tournament.
The excitement of having a hole-in-one cannot be topped. Include a hole-in-one game on one or more holes. This will give players an even greater thrill with a cash prize if one of them gets a hole-in-one on that hole!
Putting contests are another easy way to raise additional funds before or after your event. Set up a game on the putting green for all golfers and their families to partake in. People buy tickets to play this game, and the top three winners can win a prize!
A caddie auction is an excellent opportunity to recruit volunteers and raise additional funds at your next golf tournament fundraiser.
Female golfers may have fun bidding on their husbands, local business leaders, and celebrities.
Pro tip: Ensure you have enough caddies for all teams and auction them off one by one before the game. A caddie auction can bring in a few thousand dollars if your event is large enough!
Some other successful items for a golf fundraising auction include:
Virtual golf tournaments can be a chance for supporters to raise funds while doing their favorite pastime. Choose a day and connect with courses in the area to give your supporters a discount, or ask golfers to create their own peer-to-peer campaign and ask for pledges.
Golfers can be very competitive. Your golf tournament fundraiser can appeal to golfers in your area with the addition of a Beat the Pro hole.
Ask the golf club for a professional golfer to stand at one hole at your event. Golfers can bet that they can beat the pro. If they win, they double their money. If the pro wins, you win the bet.
Golfers who are not as competitive can pay the pro to hit their ball and improve their score. You’ll receive that payment, too!
Golf tournaments may not be the right event for your organization. If that’s the case, hold a mini-golf tournament to get families and kids involved in your fundraising efforts. Sell tickets online to families or groups of friends.
You can still sell sponsorships for each hole and hold hole-in-one and putting games to raise more funds.
Player registration is another way to boost revenue for your golf fundraiser. Sell golf tournament tickets for the game alone, or the game and lunch or dinner. Remember, a golf tournament fundraiser that includes a meal will bring in more revenue.
Golf fundraisers are an excellent way for donors to spend time with friends and support their favorite charity. You’ll need to choose between single-player or foursomes for course tickets. Foursomes are often more expensive and a better fit for players who love golf. This decision should be based on your donor base and why they’re interested in joining the golf tournament.
A mixed play is another option that may bring in a larger audience. Offer the entire game to foursomes and another competition on a few prize holes and the putting green for players who’d like to support your organization but don’t have much interest in golf.
Raffles are another easy way to raise money during a golf tournament fundraiser. If you’re expecting a large crowd for the event, you can raise a significant amount with a 50/50 or reverse raffle.
Remember to check your local and state laws before selling raffle tickets.
Check out this example of a golf tournament fundraiser that has included a raffle as part of their golf outing.
Pro tip: Be strategic and include raffle tickets as a separate tier on your donation form.
Golf tournaments can take the whole day. In the summer, that means a lot of thirsty players! Raise work with the golf course on ways to raise more funds by selling drinks on the course.
Donorbox Events helps charities easily create unlimited event ticket levels with tax-deductible values showcased under them. That will come in handy for selling your drink tickets.
If you want any additional information from them regarding their preferences, etc., include custom questions to collect that.
Golf outings involve a lot of waiting around.
There’s a host of online donation options to entice donors. Take advantage of players’ boredom and post giving opportunities across the course.
Most people don’t carry cash anymore, so offering potential donors a cashless donation alternative is key to raising funds!
Set up donation kiosks at the golf course to enable donors to give to your cause in a single tap, dip, or swipe using their credit/debit cards, smartphones, and smartwatches.
Donorbox Live™ Kiosk makes this possible. Have volunteers collect donations with an Android tablet or iPad paired with a card reader, or enable on-the-go fundraising with our Tap to Pay feature.
Put up QR codes that link to your fundraising page all across the golf course. It’s the most convenient way to encourage people – especially the younger crowd – to donate. All they have to do is scan the code and make a donation via your online donation form.
With Donorbox, you get a free QR code with every online campaign you create. Simply download, print, and paste it across your event venue. Let people know what the QR code is about and how the smallest donation can help you bring a better change to the world.
Raise money for your golf tournament fundraiser using a crowdfunding campaign. It’s a great way to reach out to more people than just your immediate network. The shareability of these campaigns ensures that you can reach your fundraising goal in a short period.
You could also turn this campaign into a peer-to-peer one and invite some of your best players and supporters to fundraise for you. If each can get you $500, then imagine how much you can raise overall!
Players can challenge themselves and collect funds based on the number of holes played or the time it takes to play. Peer-to-peer campaigns allow your nonprofit to raise funds with in-person or virtual golf fundraising events.
A significant benefit of holding your golf outing online or virtually is that you don’t have to rent golf courses to raise funds. Donors can raise funds on a weekly golf outing with friends or even visit the golf range!
Golf tournament fundraisers are an excellent way to raise funds and promote your organization with a new donor base.
Whichever way you decide to host your golf tournament fundraisers, Donorbox is here to help. Explore our powerful features that elevate your fundraising and donor management efforts.
Sign up to start fundraising today!
Want more tips and ideas for your fundraising events? Find hundreds of them at the Donorbox Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter and we’ll send a collection of our best resources to your inbox every month.
Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
Join the fundraising movement! Join the fundraising movement!
Subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive the latest blogs, news, and more in your inbox.
